The Library of Congress has announced its class of 2022 list of 25 recordings chosen for the National Recording Registry.
Individual songs selected this year include the Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There),” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,” Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song,” Ernest Tubb’s “Walking the Floor Over You,” Andy Williams’ “Moon River” and the Disneyland Boys Choir’s “It’s a Small World.”
The genres represented by albums include the Shirelles’ Tonight’s the Night), Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time, Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones De Mi Padre, Ry Cooder-produced Buena Vista Social Club), Duke Ellington’s Ellington at Newport, Max Roach’s We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite), and Alicia Keys’ Songs in A Minor.
Reflecting the Registry’s increasing recognition of hip-hop the 2022 lineup also includes two classic Nineties hip-hop albums: Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory.
Launched in 2000, the Registry aims to preserve what it calls “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” To qualify, songs or albums have to be at least a decade old and each year, hundreds of candidates are submitted to the Board.
Almost since the Registry began, the public has also been allowed to weigh in. This year’s list of regular-joe suggestions totaled 1,000 — and was a major reason why a populist fave like “Don’t Stop Believin’” made it in. “It’s taken its place now as a personal-empowerment anthem,” says Dr. Hayden. “It was on the Board’s list, but it wasn’t in the top 25.” Power to the … Perry people?
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Public Domain